From: Times of Central Asia
Written by Victor Winner
BISHKEK, November 22 (TCA) — Garlands of tobacco leaves hang drying on rooftops and fences all along the Osh-Batken road in southern Kyrgyzstan, like offerings to a deity for this bittersweet livelihood.
I visited one of the houses in the Nookat region of Osh oblast. The owner, Jorobay Ismanov, showed me typical southern hospitality and was happy to show me his farm, and introduced me to his family. His parents and his grandparents had been involved in tobacco growing in some way. During the Soviet time, they all worked in collective farms, which specialized in producing high quality aromatic tobacco. Jorobay, like all his neighbors, is a very experienced tobacco grower, he taught tobacco growing techniques he’d learnt from his parents to his wife and children.
“Collecting tobacco is very labor-intensive, you should tear off the leaves very carefully and put them in stacks – leaf to leaf, and you should put them along the beds. On the way back you should collect the leaves, string them on a thread and hang them to dry,” he said. “The tobacco price is growing,” said the farmer proudly. “This year one kilogram of tobacco may cost 100 soms (nearly $2). This year we have collected about 20 bales, each of them weighs 20 kilograms. After being dried, tobacco stems will be used as firewood for the tandyr [an oven-roaster and special type of grill for cooking used by Central Asian people]. We have also gathered a lot of tobacco seed pods, as we use only our own seeds. So, everything is going well!”
From February to May tobacco seedlings are planted under a film. Seedlings are then transferred to the open ground. And in late September it is time to collect the harvest. The same practice goes on across the world. It may be a small wage, just 40,000 soms for a toiling peasant laborer to feed his family for the year? But people are happy, because tobacco is not a potato, which is now difficult to sell. Tobacco is always in demand.
But it is still difficult for a family of six to live on $1,000 for the whole year. That is why every year Mr Ismanov has to go to Russia to work at the construction sites. But he does not worry, because the family business is in good hands. His wife and children are growing tobacco.
“Tobacco dust which appears during the collection, stringing, drying, sorting and packing of tobacco has a toxic effect on the human organism,” explained Svetlana Baitikova, a spokeswoman at the Health Ministry. “During the break down and stringing of tobacco, very hard washable juice containing a large number of alkaloids and nicotine stays on tobacco growers’ hands. These substances together with food are going to the digestive tract, causing increased secretion of hydrochloric acid. This causes liver disturbances.”
Southern Kyrgyzstan’s tobacco potential
Tobacco is a major crop in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions of southern Kyrgyzstan.
During Soviet times, Kyrgyzstan used to produce up to 70,000 tons of tobacco and the republic had four tobacco factories.
The soil and climatic conditions, as well as the daylight hours allow growing high-quality tobacco with low nicotine content in Kyrgyzstan. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, more than 10,000 tons of tobacco was collected in 2011 from an area of 4,000 hectares (9,000 tons in 2010).
Now farmers are urged to increase the crop area to 7,000 hectares, since the tobacco industry in the country is considered to be less problematic in the agricultural sector because despite tobacco being a labor-intensive crop, it is much easier to sell tobacco compared to other crops.
Twenty years ago, Russia was the main tobacco buyer, whereas now the list of countries buying tobacco includes Spain, the Netherlands, France, the USA, Indonesia, and China. However, today companies need large amounts of tobacco, and it is in high demand.
Kyrgyzstan currently has only two tobacco factories, and they work at 30% capacity.
According to Iskhak Masaliev, chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s State Tax Service, tobacco producers did not achieve their goal in 2012: instead of the expected three billion cigarettes they produced only one billion. At the same time, cigarette imports increased.
Today, cigarette smuggling is an important issue of tobacco industry. According to Dmitry Redko, regional director of one of the tobacco companies, the annual global losses due to cigarette smuggling make approximately $50 billion, that is, every tenth cigarette is illegal. The European Union loses 10 billion euros annually due to illicit cigarette trade, and the US loses $5 billion. Experts estimate that Kyrgyzstan loses on cigarette smuggling $1.5 million-$2 million per year.
According to Andrey Krasnikov, an independent expert on taxes, expensive cigarettes are illegally imported to Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan exports cheap cigarettes to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. At the same time, counterfeit cigarettes are imported from China.
A substantial difference in prices in Bishkek and Almaty — from 5% to 43% depending on the type of cigarettes — contributes to a significant increase in smuggling. The excise duty rate in Kazakhstan is $8.5 per 1,000 cigarettes, in Uzbekistan $6 for cigarettes of local production and 13% on imported cigarettes, in Kyrgyzstan $3.2 plus 7% of the retail price.
Experts say that in this situation, the Central Asian countries should align their rates and offer to introduce a fixed excise. According to Krasnikov, it will help raise tax revenue from cigarettes in Kyrgyzstan from last year’s 800 million soms to 1.7 billion soms in 2016.
Almost half of Kyrgyz men smoke
More than one in five Kyrgyzstanis smoke and the number is rising by two percent every year, the country’s Ministry of Health has warned.
In a new report it found that almost half of men are smokers and 1.6 percent of women light-up on a regular basis.
Kyrgyzstan is part of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization (WHO). But the country’s powerful tobacco industry has repeatedly blocked the ministry from implementing the “Law on public health protection from harmful effects of tobacco”, which will see anti-tobacco icons printed on all cigarette packs. This is despite the WHO convention which requires the new packaging measures.
At a meeting with local farmers, WHO representatives said that they do not intend to prohibit growing tobacco in Kyrgyzstan, but they recommended switching to other crops.
One Human Rights Watch report said tobacco workers absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes worth of nicotine every day. Nicotine from the tobacco leaves is absorbed through the skin. The so-called “green tobacco disease” causes nausea, vomiting and headaches. Children working with tobacco are particularly vulnerable to nicotine.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) said more than 40% of Kyrgyzstan’s population lives in tobacco growing areas and is engaged in tobacco production. Due to the transfer of land to private ownership, more villagers are engaged in tobacco cultivation, which is more profitable than other crops.
